Well it was a hobie day at our house!!! And the shopping list just got longer!!!

So we just set up our boats for the first time since we retrofitted our mast with our comp tip. We purchased a used H16 mast halyard but it seems short. When you try to tie the halyard off to the cleats it is not long enough. When standing on the tramp both ends of the halyard are about 4 feet above the bottom of the mast before the sail is up. We measured the halyard and it measured to be about 52 feet. I would have thought that it should be long enough to tie off to the bottom cleats so they are not just hanging slapping in the wind. Is this how other are? If so, how do you tie it off for storage? I don't understand why it is not 5 ft longer so it could be tied off. Let me know if this is just how it is and what you guys do! Thanks so much!!

That's not how it's supposed to be. It sounds like you have the halyard from a Hobie 14, but that would be a lot shorter.

The mast is 26' long, so 52' should be long enough - what are you doing with the shackle end of the halyard when you store it?

Most people slip the shackle into the sail feed slot, then snug it up and cleat the other end - but the halyard will slap in the wind with the mast up.

For mast up storage, I usually clip the shackle to one of the trapeze rings, then tie the free end loosely around the same trap ring. That keeps the halyard away from the mast and eliminates the *ding*ding*ding*ding*ding* sound of the halyard beating itself to death on the mast.

That makes since. Our is not long enough to attach to the sail feed slot and cleat off. When I lower the shackle end i have to raise my arm above my head to keep holding on the other end so it doesn't blow away. It seems short but maybe this is how it is?

...When standing on the tramp both ends of the halyard are about 4 feet above the bottom of the mast before the sail is up. We measured the halyard and it measured to be about 52 feet.

With a 26' mast I don't see how this can be. It sounds like the length is about right, so if these comp tips were just installed I would say the masts weren't shortened properly but they look right in the picture.

Can you just check your measurements? Measure the mast and the halyard, and see how half of the 52' halyard can be 4' shorter than the 26' mast? I don't have my boat here but the halyard being just under twice the length of the mast sounds right. When I hook the shackle onto the mast as Matt describes, there is about a foot and a half of halyard to cleat off.

I will get the mast out on Thursday and re measure. From what you guys are saying is that it is much shorter than it should. Like Matt said I could just add some line to it since it doesn't go through the sheave. We bought it on eBay from tdive5 and he wrote me back appologizing for sending me a short halyard and he is going to send me another one free and said to keep the short one for a spare. Pretty good customer service there!!!

Is the comp tip still available to retrofit to older masts? I may have to look for one. My neighbers mast just had a tree fall across it and crushed the top 3-4'. I figured they would need to find a whole replacement mast. This might be a solution. I assume that I can just re-use the old halyard and fittings?

Is the comp tip still available to retrofit to older masts? I may have to look for one. My neighbers mast just had a tree fall across it and crushed the top 3-4'. I figured they would need to find a whole replacement mast. This might be a solution. I assume that I can just re-use the old halyard and fittings?

Steve, depending on how old the boat is, you may need a new tang, too. You really want to have the three-hole tang to secure the Comptip properly.

(Really old boats - from inception to ~1977 - had one-hole tangs, like the 14.)

I still have not measured to confirm but I will get to it soon. Also Steve. We just retrofitted our mast with a new comp tip. We bought it from a lady that closed a hobie store and she has a few of them. We bought it for only $200. She did have a few of them when we bought ours. I will find her email and pass it over to you if you are interested. She is trying to clean out there storage.

I still have not measured to confirm but I will get to it soon. Also Steve. We just retrofitted our mast with a new comp tip. We bought it from a lady that closed a hobie store and she has a few of them. We bought it for only $200. She did have a few of them when we bought ours. I will find her email and pass it over to you if you are interested. She is trying to clean out there storage.

See if you can find out what she has, maybe broker a deal with her to sell her stock, she could pay you a percentage to handle it!!!!!!!!!!!